Arts and Education Outreach in Jakarta, Indonesia

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Selamat Datang di Sirkus

Hey! I`m Matheus Ferri and I arrived here 7 weeks ago coming from Brazil to a 8-week volunteer work at Red Nose Foundation, since then it has been quite an experience to get in touch with the work the organization does and with the children they help. I will post some texts here about my job hoping that you too take a glimpse of what we do here.

The first day of work at Red Nose started with me and Emily facing three balls each and starting to learn our first juggle tricks with the help of Irma and Darmadi who help with circus and tutoring at the organization. It was also the first moment we started talking to them and when I realized the work we would have to do to improve their English and that it was going to be an exchange, we would help them with English and they would help us with circus.

After barely being able to juggle with 2 balls that morning we went to Bintaro in the afternoon and first met the children we would be working with and at the end even becoming friends. Bintaro was a shock, Dan warned us about what we would find at the slum but seeing it live was different. I saw people living on trash with chickens, rats and lots of flies under the hot sun of Jakarta. There we went to a small building made by them so we could teach the children English. The communication was the biggest problem and that was one of the motives Dan wanted us there, we can only speak English with them so they would be forced to try and speak so we could understand each other. At that time too I saw the English level of the children and what we would have to teach them, first starting with basic words like vegetable and fruits and then going to simple sentences and introduction.

Next day I faced other reality, this time we went to Cilincing early in the morning and that was one more shock with the environment and the happiness of the children living not on trash but this time combined with the bad smell of rotten fish and trash and broken shells on the streets. Again we did our work teaching them and I came back to my host family wondering about the routine I would have from that day on.